Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The worlds of investing banking and Wall Street come together in this tale of high finances, and acquisitions of an important source of oil, that, might, or might not, be the real thing. When more pressure is put in being able to get cheap oil and make enormous amounts of money because of the high market prices, makes the right ingredients for all kinds of conspiracies theories.Tom Hanson, a man working for a financial institution is called to give his verdict on what an 'oily' old executive, Jared Tolson, wants to do in order to merge with a private Russian concern that controls reserves that hold a lot of promise. We realize from the start the deal needs to be investigated because it sounds too good. Someone is going to make a killing, for sure! The intrigue surrounding the prospective deal is confusing, at best. The unsuspecting viewer is assaulted with a lot of financial terms that will probably go above his head. The screenplay by Ruth Epstein is too heavy with twists and turns that add to addle anyone. In a way, we couldn't help thinking about the Enron debacle, as we watched this film, directed by Harvey Kahn.Christian Slater plays Tom Hanson, the expert that is the key figure in the deal that is being put together. Selma Blair is the smart young woman that Tom hires to delve into the background of the possible merge. Robert Loggia, never having looked as sly and fierce, is Jared Tolson. An excellent Colm Feore is about the best thing in the film.The higher places of finance in Boston, Vancouver and New York are photographed in glossy detail by Adam Sliwinski. Christopher Lennertz is the man responsible for providing the interesting music score.

It's rough to call something people worked on so hard for 'uneven' but there it is. The Deal is, simply put, about a 'deal'. It's a Wall Street thriller. And at the other end of the deal is oil. A planet in trouble where the carbon monoxide level is the highest it's been in three quarters of a million years, where 50,000,000 people are estimated to be on the run from climate catastrophes within four years, where the top twenty two median temperatures have been recorded in the past twenty six years, and so forth.It's been done before and it will be done again until the dependence on fossil fuels is ended, until the electric car is allowed to proliferate, until the oil barons get their hands off the automobile industry, until things settle down in the middle east, and so forth.Everyone does a fair job in this one except Angie. Sorry Angie, but for reasons that can't be exposed here but that will become apparent to viewers you just don't cut it.The movie's uneven because its thrill factor is propelled through at least half way by withholding important facts about the plot. And at that point you just have to see everything turns out all right with the usual modicum of plot devices tossed in.

Director Harvey Kahn was completely deprived of any inspiration in bringing to screen this political thriller story, happening in the corridors of the big corporate companies dealing with dirty oil deals, in a close but probable future where the western world is immersed in a war with the Arab oil-rich countries.Nothing can really save this production. The screenplay is routine and full of stereotypes, not batter in complexity than a mid-level TV movie. Acting of Christian Slater is fair, and Selma Blair getting full time screen is quite promising as an actress, but not enough to carry the film higher. Directing is mediocre, it keeps the conflict being obscure and confusing at the start, does not make anything happening on the screen more clear or more interesting later, and moves the camera in a neutral and dry manner.Routine stuff, nobody would have been sorry if this film was not made.

THE DEAL was made when the idea of paying $6 per gallon of gas would spark international intrigue: now that we're well over $3.35 per gallon that price seems less than shocking! The concept of showing how big business and the government cover up the absurd under the table Deals such as the one that is the focus of this meager script is now so de rigueur that there is no melodrama or intrigue to this story. One must credit writer Ruth Epstein, director Harvey Kahn, and executive producer/star Christian Slater for caring enough about the chaos oil supplies and their impact on the world at large are causing, but the sad truth is that this tale is so ho-hum in that we all read this very story in the newspaper everyday that it hardly seems to merit a movie.The cast is sterling - Christian Slater as a Wall Street type, Robert Loggia as the dirty hands dealer type, Selma Blair as the idealist, and Colm Feore, John Heard, Kevin Tighe, etc all try their best to make this flabby script meaningful. The star of the movie is the musical scoring by Christopher Lennertz...and that says a lot. Without an arc of plot line and without a bit of new information about the corruption at the highest levels of this country, this film just doesn't get off the ground. Grady Harp